There are increasingly more Brits who do not favour the UK's membership of the EU. The UK has already withdrawn from some EU projects; besides, the British government is also planning to renegotiate European agreements. Hard euroscepticism is further fuelled by tabloid press painting a dark picture of the EU and calling it the root of all evil.
Despite this, British Prime Minister David Cameron is set to keep the country within the EU. At the same time, he seemed to have given way to the pressure, as he promised a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union. He pledges to keep his word, but what he actually does is try to postpone it to 2018 or at least to the next elections in 2015.
Presently, Britain enjoys outstanding membership conditions. Its contribution to the EU budget was reduced by billions pounds, the government is independent in its social and labour market policies. Moreover, Britain rejected the EU fiscal treaty to control Eurozone budgets and refused to join the banking union. By doing so, the UK government is taxing patience of its partners. Those who support the UK's membership of the EU joke, “Alright, let’s stay in the EU, but only if the French leave it and Germans pay slightly more.”
In a stark warning, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, said, “If every member state were able to cherry-pick those parts of existing policies that they most like, and opt out of those that they least like, the union in general, and the single market in particular, would soon unravel.”
EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn puts it another way: “If I were a Briton in the EU, I would prefer to be in the midfield as a playmaker, rather than sitting on the sidelines as a substitute. You never score goals from the bench.”